Luke is an indoor cat. He has no outdoor adventures to document, no neighborhood territory to patrol and absolutely no permission to wander off and see what the neighbors are doing. That’s actually one of the reasons I wanted to test the PetSafe GPS Cat Tracker + Activity Monitoring on him.
GPS trackers aren’t only for cats that routinely go outside. They’re also potentially useful for cats who are never supposed to be outside in the first place.
If one slips through a door, pushes through a screen or otherwise takes advantage of the approximately three seconds when a human isn’t paying attention, being able to locate them quickly could make a huge difference.
And that’s really the part of the PetSafe tracker I hope I never have to test for real. In the meantime, though, there’s plenty more to it than finding a missing cat. So, I put it on Luke to see how comfortable it was for everyday wear, what kind of activity data it collected and how useful the GPS features were for a cat who spends his days safely indoors.
The PetSafe GPS Cat Tracker combines real-time GPS tracking, customizable safe zones, escape alerts and activity monitoring in a lightweight design with an included breakaway safety collar. It also tracks distance and rest, includes a handy locating tone and comes with a free 3-month subscription.
PetSafe GPS Cat Tracker: Top Features
- Real-time GPS and LTE location tracking
- Unlimited customizable safe zones
- Immediate escape alerts
- Find My Pet mode with directions through Google or Apple Maps
- Activity monitoring for distance traveled and rest
- 30 days of stored activity data
- App-activated locating tone
- Included breakaway safety collar
- Breakaway buckle releases under 5 to 10 pounds of pressure
- Up to 15-day battery life
- Smart charging base
- Waterproof and dustproof with an IP67 rating
- Fits cats with neck sizes up to 12 inches
- Multi-pet and multi-owner app sharing
- Three-month subscription trial included
Unlike the dog tracker, which attaches to an existing collar or harness, the cat version comes as a complete collar-and-tracker setup. The breakaway buckle is designed to release under pressure if a cat gets snagged while climbing or exploring.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
My Real-World PetSafe GPS Cat Tracker Review
Luke isn’t our biggest escape artist, but aside from Zoe, he’s probably the cat most interested in finding out what’s on the other side of the front door. Zoe was immediately disqualified from testing because putting a collar on her would involve bloodshed, and most of that blood would be mine. So, Luke got the job. He was delighted. Okay, no. There was drama.
Have a dog, too?
PetSafe makes a dog version with many of the same GPS and activity-tracking features, but there are a few important differences. I tested that one with Freya.
Read my PetSafe GPS Dog Tracker review →First We Had to Convince Luke That the Collar Wasn’t Trying to Kill Him
Before I could test anything else, there was the minor matter of putting the tracker on an animal who has spent his entire life blissfully unaware that collars exist.
Luke was not impressed. Actually, “not impressed” undersells it. There was rolling. There was flopping. There was frantic neck maneuvering. There was a facial expression that strongly suggested I’d betrayed everything he thought he knew about our relationship. I have photographic evidence.
Fortunately, the entire protest lasted about 15 minutes. Once Luke realized the collar wasn’t coming off just because he was being extraordinarily dramatic about it, he basically accepted his fate and went back to being Luke.
That’s worth mentioning because I suspect plenty of indoor-cat owners are in the same position. If your cat already wears a collar, adding the PetSafe tracker probably isn’t much of a lifestyle adjustment. If your cat has never worn one, don’t necessarily interpret the first few minutes of “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?” as proof that it’s uncomfortable.
Cats have opinions. Sometimes they need a little time to revise them.
Nori Was More Than Willing to Take Luke’s Place
I originally wanted to test the tracker on Nori because he’s by far one of the most active cats in the house. From a purely data-driven standpoint, he would have been fascinating.
Unfortunately, kittens grow at approximately the same rate that groceries increase in price, so I decided Luke made more sense for longer-term testing. Nori disagreed with this decision.
While we were adjusting the collar for Luke, he kept butting in and batting at it. I’d like to believe he was volunteering to help with my review. It’s equally possible that he saw something dangling and thought, “Mine.” Either interpretation seems reasonable.
The Included Breakaway Collar Makes Sense for Cats
One of the biggest physical differences between the PetSafe cat and dog trackers is how they’re worn.
The dog tracker has a metal clip that lets me attach it to Freya’s existing everyday collar. The cat version comes with its own adjustable breakaway collar, which fits neck sizes up to 12 inches. PetSafe says the buckle is designed to release under about 5 to 10 pounds of pressure.
That’s important for cats.
They’re climbers, crawlers and professional investigators of spaces that clearly weren’t designed to contain a cat. A collar that can release if it becomes snagged is an important safety feature, especially if they’re wearing it unsupervised.
From what I can tell, the tracker isn’t intended to be removed from the included collar and transferred to another one.
That’s not a problem for us because my cats traditionally don’t wear collars anyway. If you already have a particular collar your cat likes, though, it’s something I’d keep in mind.
Why I’m Testing a GPS Tracker on an Indoor Cat
This is probably the biggest question surrounding this review. Luke doesn’t go outside. So why does he need GPS?
Because Luke doesn’t go outside on purpose. There’s a difference.
Most of my cats have relatively little interest in making a break for it when we open the door. Luke, however, occasionally looks outside with that particular expression cats get when they’re considering making a terrible decision.
He’s not quite as determined about it as Zoe, but he’s interested enough that I pay attention.
An indoor-only cat getting outside is also arguably one of the situations where GPS tracking could be most valuable. An outdoor cat knows its normal territory. An indoor cat suddenly dropped into an unfamiliar world of cars, woods, dogs, strange people and approximately eight billion interesting smells may behave very differently.
That’s the “what if?” part of this tracker for me. I don’t expect Luke to escape. I’d very much prefer that he never gives me the opportunity to test that feature under real-world conditions.
Safe Zones Give Me an Early Warning System
Like the dog version, the PetSafe GPS Cat Tracker lets you create unlimited custom safe zones through the My PetSafe app. If your cat leaves one, you receive an escape alert.
It isn’t an invisible fence and doesn’t physically prevent the cat from crossing the boundary. It simply tells you when they have. For an indoor cat, that’s exactly what I want.
If Luke somehow gets outside, I don’t want my first clue to be realizing I haven’t seen him for three hours. I want my phone to tell me.
You can also create safe zones somewhere other than home, which could be useful when traveling with a cat, staying in a vacation rental or temporarily living somewhere else.
GPS Tracking Doesn’t Depend on Someone Else Finding Luke First
Another reason I prefer a dedicated GPS tracker for this purpose is that the PetSafe tracker uses GPS and LTE cellular service rather than depending solely on short-range Bluetooth tracking.
That’s an important distinction when we’re talking about a missing pet.
Bluetooth tags can be useful for locating objects, but I want something specifically designed to tell me where my cat is if he’s no longer near me.
PetSafe also includes Find My Pet, which can send the tracker’s coordinates to Google Maps or Apple Maps (depending on your device and your map preference settings) for directions.
Total off-track side note: I tried to cross out my exact address on the screenshot above for privacy reasons, then realized I left it visible in all other screenshots. Whatever. It’s not like any of you are going to show up on my doorstep. Right? Right??
There’s Also a “Hey, Where Are You?” Tone
The cat tracker has one feature that isn’t on the dog version I’ve been testing: you can activate a gentle tone from the app to help locate your cat. PetSafe specifically designed the sound to help you find them without being overly startling.
Anyone who has ever spent 20 minutes looking for a cat only to discover that they were asleep behind a throw pillow can probably see the appeal.
We have SO been there done that. My mom and my son both live with me, and both have this thing where they suddenly need an exact location on all six cats. Four of them choose nap spots that you would NEVER in a million years think to look.
The Activity Tracking Is Simpler Than the Dog Version
This is another difference worth pointing out. Freya’s PetSafe tracker monitors steps, distance, rest and barking. The cat version focuses on distance traveled and rest, with up to 30 days of historical activity data available in the app.
At first glance, that’s less exciting. But I’m curious to see what the data actually tells me about Luke.
Cats are particularly difficult to judge when it comes to activity because so much of their day happens when we aren’t paying attention. I know Luke runs around. I know he sleeps a lot because he’s a cat and apparently that’s their primary occupation.
What I don’t know is how much ground he actually covers in a typical day or how consistent his patterns are.
That’s what I’m hoping the tracker will show me.
And while this isn’t a health monitor, establishing a baseline can still make the information more useful. If Luke normally travels roughly the same distance each day and suddenly his activity changes considerably, that’s something I might notice in the app before I’d otherwise think to quantify it.
A Very Important Warning for Anyone Who Also Owns the Dog Tracker
Label. The. Chargers. I’m saving you from my mistake. The charging bases for the PetSafe dog and cat trackers look almost identical. They are not interchangeable.
I discovered this after leaving the cat tracker charging for hours and then looking at the app to discover that it was still at 4%.
This led to a brief period of wondering whether I’d received a defective tracker before I realized I’d put it on Freya’s charging base. Whoops.
Once I used the correct one, all was well. If you own both trackers, save yourself the confusion and put a little label on each base immediately. Future You doesn’t need this nonsense.
The cat tracker itself is rated for up to 15 days between charges and should fully recharge in under two hours. Its smart base also conserves battery when the cat is nearby. When the tracker is within about 30 feet of the base, the app indicates that your cat is near the charging station rather than continually reporting an exact GPS location.
Activity monitoring continues during that time.
It’s Waterproof, Because Cats Make Their Own Decisions
The tracker carries an IP67 rating, meaning it’s dustproof and designed to withstand immersion in up to about one meter of water for 30 minutes.
Luke is an indoor cat, so I don’t anticipate him going swimming. However, he does like to play in his water bowl. So, at minimum, the waterproofing means I don’t need to worry about splashed water bowls, wet paws or other normal household incidents.
For outdoor cats, obviously, weather resistance becomes much more important.
The Subscription Makes More Sense When the Tracker Does More Than GPS
Like the dog version, the PetSafe GPS Cat Tracker requires a subscription after the included three-month free trial. The subscription supports the cellular connectivity required to transmit location information and alerts rather than charging you simply to access GPS satellites.
I’m never going to celebrate adding another subscription to my monthly expenses. I think modern life has quite enough of those already.
But I also look at pet GPS trackers differently from most gadgets. The GPS portion is essentially insurance against something I desperately hope doesn’t happen.
The difference is that I’m not paying solely for the hypothetical emergency. I’m also getting safe-zone alerts, activity history, rest and distance data, location tools and that handy “where the heck is Luke?” tone.
That makes the recurring cost easier to justify than something that sits there doing nothing unless my cat gets lost.
My Thoughts on the PetSafe GPS Cat Tracker
Despite his initial performance, he’s adapted to wearing the collar remarkably quickly. It took about 15 minutes for him to go from “How could you?” to apparently forgetting the thing existed. See, here he is in his “hot dog bun” box (which he personally squished just right and now we can never get rid of it because it’s his favorite spot):
I like the basic approach. The PetSafe GPS Cat Tracker takes the features I liked most about Freya’s tracker and adapts them in ways that make more sense for cats.
The breakaway collar is an especially important change, and the locating tone feels much more useful for an animal whose hobbies include disappearing into spaces that don’t appear physically large enough to contain them.
I’m also interested to see what Luke’s activity data looks like after I’ve collected enough of it to establish a normal pattern.
The PetSafe GPS Cat Tracker combines real-time GPS tracking, customizable safe zones, escape alerts and activity monitoring in a lightweight design with an included breakaway safety collar. It also tracks distance and rest, includes a handy locating tone and comes with a free 3-month subscription.
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